This invention relates generally to methods for making rope and more particularly concerns a method for making rope from sheets of plastic film.
Rope is typically made by twisting or braiding together strands of material including plant fibers, metallic wires or plastic filaments. Its uses as a utility or all-purpose tool or for specific applications are limited only by the imagination. Rope is used to tie-up, tie down, package, pull, connect, separate, climb, hang, guide, decorate, and so on. Depending on its use, it may be more or less desirable that a rope be strong, stretchable, soft, malleable, thin or aesthetic. Does it tend to fray or unravel, untie too easily or not easily enough, chafe the hands or the pocketbook? It would be nice to be able to select a rope which maximizes the desirable and minimizes the undesirable characteristics for a particular application, but presently known methods and materials used in making rope result in undesirable compromises in some characteristics in order to attain acceptable performance in others.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a method for making rope which affords flexibility in controlling the magnitude of a wide range of characteristics the rope being produced. Another object of this invention is to provide a method for making rope which produces rope that resists fraying. A further object of this invention is to provide a method for making rope which produces rope that resists unraveling. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a method for making rope which affords a wide range of selectivity in the strength of the rope produced. It is also an object of this invention to provide a method for making rope which affords a wide range of selectivity in the stretchability of the rope produced. Still another object of this invention is to provide a method for making rope which affords a wide range of selectivity in the malleability of the rope produced. An additional object of this invention is to provide a method for making rope which affords a wide range of selectivity in the texture of the rope produced. Another object of this invention is to provide a method for making rope which affords a wide range of selectivity in the thickness of the rope produced. A further object of this invention is to provide a method for making rope which affords a wide range of selectivity in the color of the rope produced.